Дисертації з теми "Polarization dynamics of VCSEL"

La diode laser est un composant clef de notre vie de tous les jours. Inventée il y a cinquante ans (1962) elle est utilisée aujourd'hui pour lire l'information encodée sur des disques compacts dans les lecteurs CD, pour transmettre l'information sous forme optique dans les réseaux de télécommunications à fibres optiques, pour scanner nos articles dans les supermarchés, pour aider au positionnement, à l'éclairage et à l'affichage dans des systèmes multimédias. Ces applications nécessitent un comportement stable et surtout prédictible du composant laser. Cependant, il a été démontré depuis plus de trente ans que sous certaines conditions, la diode laser émet une puissance fluctuant dans le temps de façon chaotique c'est-à-dire imprévisible. Le chaos ou la sensibilité extrême d'un système dynamique conduisant à son imprédictibilité, a aujourd'hui été observé dans grands nombres de systèmes physiques et biologiques. Le chaos explique par exemple aujourd'hui l'impossibilité mathématique de prédire la météo au-delà de quelques jours. Cette thèse est donc à la confrontation de deux thèmes scientifiques majeurs: le comportement dynamique et les performances de diodes lasers, et l'étude du chaos optique. Nous proposons dans un premier temps d'étudier la génération de chaos optique par une diode laser à l'aide d'une rétroaction optique conduisant à des dynamiques complexes entre deux états de polarisation du laser. L'analyse approfondie de ces dynamiques montre l'existence de propriétés de corrélation inattendues entre polarisation se manifestant à plusieurs échelles de temps distincts. Nous démontrons d'une part l’interaction qui existe entre ces échelles de temps et proposons d'autre part une interprétation physique à ce phénomène.Dans un second temps, nous nous intéressons à une dynamique particulière conduisant à un basculement régulier entre deux états de polarisation dans une diode laser soumis à une rétroaction optique modifiant l'état de polarisation. Ces basculements sont à l'origine de modulation ondes carrées. La fréquence de modulation est modulable de manière très simple par une modification de la rétroaction. De plus, nous observons l'apparition de dynamiques oscillants et entretenues accompagnant les états hauts des ondes carrées. Une analyse expérimentale et numérique montre que la fréquence de ces oscillations dépassent les fréquences typiques observées pour ce genre de système laser. L'étude analytique prévoit des fréquences pouvant aller au-delà des 20 GHz sur des dispositifs lasers particuliers appelés VCSELs
Laser diodes have become a key component in our everyday life. Discovered 50 years ago (1962), laser diode is used for reading information engraved in compact disk (CD), for transmitting informations in modern telecommunication systems based on optical fibers, for reading bar codes at the supermarket, for positioning and ranging and for lightning. All those applications need a stable and predictible behavior of the laser. Nonetheless, it has been shown that lasers can emit an chaotic fluctuation of light intensity under certain conditions i.e. an unpredictable dynamic. The chaos, or the high sensitivity of a system leading to its unpredictibility, is nowaday observed in a large variety of physical and biologial systems. Chaos explains for example the mathématical impossibility to predict the weather beyond few days. This thesis is therefore at the interface between two main scientific themes : the dynamical behavior and the specifications of laser diodes, and the study of optical chaos.We propose in a first part to study the generation of optical chaos from a laser diode using an optical feedback which leads to complex dynamics between two polarisation states of the laser. An in-depth analysis of this dynamic shows the existence of unexpeted correlation properties between the polarisations which manifest themselves on several time-scales. We demonstrate, on the one hand, the interplay between the different time-scales and on the other hand, we bring a physical interpretation to this phenomenon.In a second part, we focus on a peculiar dynamic leading to regular switching between two polarization states in a laser diode subjected to optical feedback. Those swtichings lead to square-wave modulations. The modulation frequency can be driven by a simple modification of the feedback parameters. In addition, we observe the emergence of oscillatory and undamped dynamics which accompagny the upper state of the square-wave. An experimental and numerical analysis show that the frequency of those oscillations exceed the usual frequency signatures for this kind of laser system. The analytical study predicts frequencies going beyond 20 GHz for a peculier type of lasers called VCSELs

Dans ce travail, nous étudions la dynamique non linéaire de diodes laser injectées optiquement avec des peignes de fréquence.Nous analysons d'abord théoriquement et expérimentalement la dynamique non linéaire des lasers à émettant par la tranche (EELs) à partir d'une injection optique de peignes de fréquence. Les paramètres d'injection et les propriétés du peigne injecté sont variés pour dévoiler plusieurs dynamiques verrouillées et déverrouillées. Pour une force d'injection suffisamment grande et sur une large plage de désaccord, le verrouillage d'injection bifurque vers une dynamique temporelle correspondant à un peigne de fréquence optique qui étend le peigne injecté à un spectre optique beaucoup plus large. Une analyse de bifurcation révèle une dynamique de peigne de fréquence harmonique en cascade conduisant à une augmentation significative des lignes de peigne de sortie. Nous avons également utilisé les paramètres d'injection, les propriétés du peigne et le courant d'injection pour contrôler les propriétés du nouve peigne. Dans un deuxième temps, nous analysons expérimentalement la dynamique non linéaire et les propriétés de polarisation dans des lasers émettant par la surface (VCSEL) soumis à une injection optique orthogonale avec des peignes de fréquence. Plus important encore, le VCSEL montre deux peignes de fréquence avec une polarisation orthogonale à partir d'un seul appareil pour certains paramètres d'injection. Nous démontrons également la possibilité de contrôler le taux de répétition des peignes à une ou deux polarisations grâce à la génération de peignes à fréquence harmonique. Nous présentons enfin expérimentalement et théoriquement la dynamique d'injection de VCSEL à partir d'une injection de peigne de fréquence optique avec une polarisation parallèle à celle du VCSEL. Nous montrons que la performance des peignes à deux polarisations sont limitées à une injection de courant élevé dans le cas d'une injection optique parallèle. Pour un courant de polarisation fixe, la dynamique des deux peignes de polarisation disparaît lorsque l'on augmente l'espacement des peignes injectés.Cette thèse démontre donc outre son intérêt pour la dynamique laser non linéaire, l'injection optique est une technique permettant d'exploiter les propriétés de peigne dans les diodes laser
In this work, we study the nonlinear dynamics of laser diodes optically injected with frequency combs.We first theoretically and experimentally analyze the nonlinear dynamics of edge-emitting lasers (EELs) from an optical injection of frequency combs. The injection parameters and injected comb properties are varied to unveil several locked and unlocked dynamics. For large enough injection strength and over a large detuning range, the injection locking bifurcates to a time-periodic dynamics corresponding to an optical frequency comb that extends the injected comb to a much broader optical spectrum. A bifurcation analysis reveals a cascade harmonic frequency comb dynamics leading to a significant increase in the output comb lines. We have also used the injection parameters, comb properties, and injection current to control the new comb properties. We secondly analyze the nonlinear dynamics and polarization properties in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) subject to orthogonal optical injection with frequency combs experimentally. Most importantly, the VCSEL shows two frequency combs with orthogonal polarization from a single device for some injection parameters. We also demonstrate the possibility to control the single or two polarizations comb repetition rate through harmonic frequency combs generation. We finally present experimentally and theoretically the VCSEL injection dynamics from parallel optical frequency comb injection. We show that the two polarizations combperformance is restricted to high current injection in the case of parallel optical injection. For fixed bias current, the two polarization comb dynamics disappear when increasing the injected comb spacing.This thesis therefore demonstrates besides its interest for nonlinear laser dynamics, optical injection is a technique to harness the comb properties in laser diodes

Le laser à cavité verticale émettant par la surface (VCSEL ou Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser) comporte des avantages compétitifs par rapport aux lasers émettant par le côté. Le VCSEL présente souvent deux modes de polarisation linéaire orthogonaux avec des fréquences et des gains optiques presque identiques. Dès lors, de faibles perturbations telles que des modifications du courant d injection ou de la température peuvent induire des basculements de polarisation. Toutefois, en utilisant un schéma d injection optique d un faisceau laser externe, il est possible de contrôler ces instabilités de polarisation. Nous nous intéressons au contrôle du basculement de polarisation, à la bistabilité de polarisation ainsi qu à la compétition des modes transverses d un VCSEL soumis à injection optique de polarisation orthogonale. En variant les paramètres d injection¡(puissance injectée et désaccord en fréquence entre le laser maître et le VCSEL), nous montrons que le basculement de polarisation implique des dynamiques non linéaires telles le mélange d ondes, le cycle limite, la résonance subharmonique ainsi qu une route de doublement de période vers le chaos optique. L analyse des bifurcations sous-jacentes permet de dresser une cartographie des dynamiques de basculement de polarisation du VCSEL. orthogonaux affecte la qualité de la synchronisation du chaos. Ces résultats sont intéressants dans le cadre du développement de liaisons de communication sécurisée par chaos optique. Dans notre thèse, nous étudions également la synchronisation du chaos de VCSELs dans un schéma de couplage unidirectionnel. Nous montrons que la compétition des modes de polarisation linéaire
Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) have competitive advantages with respect to conventional edge-emitting lasers such as the fabrication of dense two-dimensional VCSEL arrays for optical interconnects. VCSELs exhibit intriguing polarization properties which are critical in polarization-sensitive applications. Polarization switching (PS) between two VCSEL s preferential orthogonal linearly polarized (LP) modes may be induced by changing the bias current, temperature or, externally, through orthogonally polarized optical injection. Depending on optical injection parameters, i.e., the injected power and the frequency detuning, injection-locking of the VCSEL can be achieved. We contribute to the study of polarization bistability, polarization switching (PS), injection-locking and transverse mode competition in a VCSEL subject to orthogonal continuous-wave optical injection. We experimentally show and theoretically demonstrate that PS and locking may involve rich nonlinear dynamics including wave mixing, limit cycle, subharmonic resonances or a period-doubling route to chaos. In particular, we analyze the interplay between PS and the underlying nonlinear dynamics, and unveil its bifurcation mechanisms. Our study brings a new insight into the physics of polarization dynamics in externally-driven VCSELs. Chaos synchronization of coupled VCSELs is also investigated. A feedback-induced chaotic light from the master VCSEL is unidirectionally injected into the slave VCSEL. We show that the synchronization quality can be significantly enhanced when chaos involves both orthogonal LP modes. This result is interesting for chaos communication schemes based on VCSELs

We have studied the charge density wave (CDW) repolarization dynamics in blue bronze (K0.3MoO3) by applying symmetric bipolar square-wave voltages of different frequencies to the sample and measuring the changes in infrared transmittance, proportional to CDW strain. The frequency dependence of the electro-transmittance was fit to a modified harmonic oscillator response and the evolution of the parameters as functions of voltage, position, and temperature are discussed. We found that resonance frequencies decrease with distance from the current contacts, indicating that the resulting delays are intrinsic to the CDW with the strain effectively flowing from the contact. For a fixed position, the average relaxation time for most samples has a voltage dependence given by τ0 ∼ V −p, with 1 < p < 2. The temperature dependence of the fitting parameters shows that the dynamics are governed by both the force on the CDW and the CDW current: for a given force and position, both the relaxation and delay times are inversely proportional to the CDW current as temperature is varied. The long delay times (∼ 100 μs) for large CDW currents suggest that the strain response involves the motion of macroscopic objects, presumably CDW phase dislocation lines. We have done frequency domain simulations to study charge-density-wave (CDW) polarization dynamics when symmetric bipolar square current pulses of different frequencies and amplitudes are applied to the sample, using parameters appropriate for NbSe3 at T = 90 K. The frequency dependence of the strain at one fixed position was fit to the same modified harmonic oscillator response and the behavior of the parameters as functions of current and position are discussed. Delay times increase nonlinearly with distance from the current contacts again, indicating that these are intrinsic to the CDWwith the strain effectively flowing from the contact. For a fixed position and high currents the relaxation time increases with decreasing current, but for low currents its behavior is strongly dependent on the distance between the current contact and the sample ends. This fact clearly shows the effect of the phase-slip process needed in the current conversion process at the contacts. The relaxation and delay times computed (∼ 1 μs) are much shorter than observed in blue bronze (> 100 μs), as expected because NbSe3 is metallic whereas K0.3MoO3 is semiconducting. While our simulated results bear a qualitative resemblance with those obtained in blue bronze, we can not make a quantitative comparison with the K0.3MoO3 results since the CDW in our simulations is current driven, whereas the electro-optic experiment was voltage driven. Different theoretical models predict that for voltages near the threshold Von, quantities such as the dynamic phase velocity correlation length and CDW velocity vary as ξ ∼ |V/Von − 1| −ν and v ∼ |V/Von − 1|ξ with ν ∼ 1/2 and ζ = 5/6. Additionally, a weakly divergent behavior for the diffusion constant D ∼ |V/Von − 1|−2ν+ζ is expected. Motivated by these premises and the fact that no convincing experimental evidence is known, we carried out measurements of the parameters that govern the CDW repolarization dynamic for voltages near threshold. We found that for most temperatures considered the relaxation time still increases for voltages as small as 1.06Von indicating that the CDW is still in the plastic and presumably in the noncritical limit. However, at one temperature we found that the relaxation time saturates with no indication of critical behavior, giving a new upper limit to the critical regime, of |V/Von − 1| < 0.06.

Here a temperature stable optical fiber current sensor based on the Sagnac loop interferometer and a cavity formed from two Faraday rotation mirrors is developed and tested. To the best of the author's knowledge a cavity composed of two Faraday rotation mirrors has never been used for the measurement of alternating currents. For the first time, it is shown that the maximum Faraday rotation angle for a long, static optical fiber is input polarization insensitive. Also, linear birefringence is shown to quench this angle in long optical fiber. The polarization dynamics in an optical ground wire network, for a summer period and a fall period, are reported for the first time. The highest-speed polarization changes are attributed to the high-voltage power line, i.e., the electrical current. A novel spectral analysis polarization optical time domain reflectometry method, that uses an induced birefringent event, is shown to work in long optical fiber.

Dans cette thèse nous présentons dans un premier temps nos résultats expérimentaux sur les instabilités de polarisation de lasers à boîtes quantiques (QD) et à cavité verticale (VCSELs). Ces instabilités présentent des caractéristiques différentes de celles observées dans les lasers VCSELs à puits quantiques : une compétition se produit entre deux états polarisés elliptiquement et non orthogonaux, qui donne lieu à une dynamique de saut de mode de polarisation dans le temps. Le temps de séjour moyen dans un mode décroit de huit ordres de grandeur en augmentant le courant d’injection (de la seconde à la nanoseconde). A notre connaissance ceci constitue la première observation d’une dynamique de polarisation d’un VCSEL avec une échelle de temps aussi diversifiée.Nous présentons ensuite une étude théorique d’un laser QD avec injection optique, en prenant en compte la dynamique des porteurs de charge vers des états énergétiques excités. Nous montrons qu’aux dynamiques d’impulsions excitables observées expérimentalement s’ajoutent des dynamiques auto-pulsées complexes résultant d’une phénomène de bifurcation autour d’un point de selle (« bottleneck »). Finalement nous avons étudié le cas d’un laser QD émettant simultanément depuis les états d’énergie fondamental et excité. Alors que la lumière est injectée dans laser QD esclave à la fréquence proche de l’état d’énergie fondamental, nous montrons que l’émission à la fréquence de l’état excité présente une dynamique auto-pulsée avec des impulsions très courtes (ps) suite à un mécanisme de basculement de gain
In this thesis we first show our experimental results on polarization instabilities in quantum dot (QD) lasers with vertical cavity, so called VCSELs. Their characteristics are different from what is typically observed in their QW counterparts: light that is linearly polarized close to lasing threshold becomes elliptically polarized as current is increased and then a wide region of polarization mode hopping between nonorthogonal, elliptically polarized modes sets on. Within this region the average dwell time decreases by eight orders of magnitude from seconds to nanoseconds. To our best knowledge this is the first observation of such a diversified dynamics of polarization mode hopping in a single VCSEL. We have also carried out theoretical studies of optically injected QD lasers accounting for the intradot carrier dynamics through the higher-energy excited states. We show that experimentally observed excitable pulses are complemented by self-pulsations resulting from the so-called bottleneck phenomenon. Finally, we have theoretically investigated optically injected QD laser lasing simultaneously from the ground and excited states. We show that although the external light is injected to the ground state mode alone, modulation of the relaxation time induced by injected signal can provide a gain switching mechanism leading to generation of picosecond pulses from the excited state

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Oct. 10, 2007). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Political Science." Discipline: Political Science; Department/School: Political Science.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-142). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

New dynamical applications of quantum beat spectroscopy (QBS) to molecular dynamics are employed to probe the angular momentum polarization effects in photodissociation and molecular collisions. The magnitude and the dynamical behaviour of angular momentum alignment and orientation, two types of polarization, can be measured via QBS technique on a shot-by-shot basis. The first part of this thesis describes the experimental studies of collisional angular momentum depolarization for the electronically excited state radicals in the presence of the collider partners. Depolarization accompanies both inelastic collisions, giving rise to rotational energy transfer (RET), and elastic collisions. Experimental results also have a fairly good agreement with the results of quasi-classical trajectory scattering calculations. Chapter 1 provides the brief theories about the application of the QBS technique and collisional depolarization. Chapter 2 describes the method and instrumentation employed in the experiments of this work. In Chapter 3, the QBS technique is used to measure the total elastic plus elastic depolarization rate constants under thermal conditions for NO(A,v=0) in the presence of He, Ar, N2, and O2. In the case of NO(A) with Ar, and particularly with He, collisional depolarization is significantly smaller than RET, reflecting the weak long-range forces in these systems. In the case of NO(A)+N2/O2, collisional depolarization and RET are comparable, reflecting the relatively strong long-range forces in these systems. In Chapter 4, the QBS technique is used to measure the elastic and inelastic depolarization and total RET rate constants for OH(A,v=0) under thermal conditions in the presence of He and Ar, as well as the total depolarization rate constants under superthermal conditions. In the case of OH(A)+He, elastic depolarization is sensitive to the N rotational state, and inelastic depolarization is strongly dependent on the collision energy. In the case of OH(A)+Ar, elastic depolarization is insensitive to N, and inelastic depolarization is less sensitive to the collision energy, reflecting that the relatively strong long-range force in OH(A)+Ar system. The second part of this thesis describes the experimental studies of photodissociation under thermal conditions. Chapter 5 provides a brief introduction about several polarization parameter formalisms used for photodissociation, and the incorporation of the QBS technique to measure these polarization parameters. In this thesis, most polarization parameters of the molecular photofragments are measured using the LIF method, and the QBS technique is used as a complementary tool to probe these polarization parameters. In Chapter 6, rotational orientation in the OH(X,v=0) photofragments from H2O2 photodissociation using circularly polarized light at 193 nm is observed. Although H2O2 can be excited to both the A and B electronic states by 193 nm, the observed orientation is only related to the A state dynamics. A proposed mechanism about the coupling between a polarized photon and the H2O2 parent rotation is simulated, and the good agreement between the experimental and simulation results further confirms the validity of this mechanism. In Chapter 7, rotational orientation in the NO(X,v) photofragments from NO2 photodissociation using circularly polarized light at 306 nm (v=0,1,2) and at 355 nm (v=0,1) is observed. Two possible mechanisms, the parent molecular rotation and the coherent effect between multiple electronic states, are discussed. NOCl is photodissociated using circularly polarized light at 306 nm, and NO(X,v) rotational distributions (v=0,1) and rotational orientation (v=0) are measured. For the case of NOCl, the generation of orientation is attributed to the coherent effect.

Many ferroelectric devices benefit from the ability to deposit thin ferroelectric layers. Poly(vinylidene) fluoride (PVDF) is the prototypical ferroelectric polymer, but processing of thin film ferroelectric PVDF remains a challenge due to the formation of large voids in the film during traditional thin film processing. The research described in this dissertation starts by investigating the origin of these voids. The cause of these voids is found to be caused by vapor induced phase separation (VIPS). Guided by the thermodynamics of VIPS, a process is then designed to produce void-free ferroelectric PVDF thin films on polar and non-polar substrates. The films are shown to have a high remnant polarization (~6.5 C m^–2). The later part of this dissertation is focused on understanding the temperature and structural phase dependent kinetics of polarization switching in PVDF films. A polarization switching model is developed with considerations of Avrami nucleation and growth, local electric fields, temperature and structural phase. The kinetics of polarization switching are shown to follow a universal behavior when correctly accounting for temperature and structural phase.

Semiconductor lasers (Sls) are very sensitive to external perturbations which may destabilize their steady output. This is particularly striking when the SL is subject to optical feedback, i.e. when part of the light coming out of the laser is reinjected in the cavity after reflection from a distant mirror. For some applications, this is a nuisance that we wish to avoid. But optical feedback may also drive the laser into dynamical regimes which are useful for new applications. In this thesis, we study different problems where an SL is subject to a delayed feedback or to an injected signal. These problems are motivated by recent experiments, technological issues, or particular dynamical phenomena. Specifically, we combine analytical techniques, numerical simulations, and experiments to investigate the bifurcation mechanisms leading to a large variety of oscillatory outputs. The systems that we discuss are an edge-emitting laser with polarization-rotated optical feedback, a two-mode laser with optical injection, a quantum cascade laser with optical feedback, and a semiconductor ring laser with optical feedback. We show that the bifurcations from the steady-states are of primary importance. They not only delimit the stability boundaries of the laser output but they also form the backbone structure of many pulsating waveforms. We investigate these bifurcations in detail in order to find the best operating conditions to observe specific dynamical regimes. Our results highlight laser key parameters that allow their efficient control.
Les lasers à semi-conducteur sont sensibles aux perturbations externes et celles-ci peuvent déstabiliser leur faisceau de sortie d’intensité constante. Ceci est particulièrement marquant quand le laser à semi-conducteur est sujet à un feedback optique, c’est-à-dire quand une partie de la lumière sortant du laser est réinjectée dans sa cavité après réflexion par un miroir distant. Pour certaines applications, cela représente une nuisance que l’on souhaite éviter. Mais le feedback optique peut aussi engendrer des régimes dynamiques utiles pour de nouvelles applications. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions différents problèmes où un laser à semi-conducteur est soumis à un feedback retardé ou à un signal injecté. Nos travaux sont motivés par de récentes expériences, des questions technologiques ou des phénomènes dynamiques particuliers. Nous combinons des techniques analytiques, des simulations numériques ainsi que des expériences afin d’analyser les mécanismes de bifurcation menant à une large variété de régimes oscillants.Nous étudions en premier lieu la dynamique d’un laser à semi-conducteur soumis à un feedback avec rotation de la polarisation. Nous examinons, à la fois théoriquement et expérimentalement, la séquence de bifurcations menant à des oscillations sous forme d’ondes carrées. Nous mettons en évidence une multistabilité entre différentes ondes carrées de périodes spécifiques. Nous introduisons alors un mécanisme de contrôle qui nous permet de sélectionner l’onde carrée désirée. Nous analysons ensuite les frontières de stabilité d’un laser à semi-conducteur à deux polarisations soumis à une injection optique. Nous montrons que si les gains des deux modes de polarisation sont suffisamment proches, un état stationnaire mixte stable peut exister. Nous explorons également les conditions permettant une bistabilité entre un état stationnaire pur et un état stationnaire mixte. Les lasers à cascade quantique sont de nouveaux lasers à semi-conducteur prometteurs qui possèdent une forte tolérance au feedback optique. Nous examinons de façon systématique leur stabilité dans la limite des grands retards. Nous montrons que des instabilités oscillantes sont cependant possibles pour de faibles valeurs du courant de pompe. Le dernier dispositif que nous étudions dans cette thèse est le laser à semi-conducteur en anneau soumis à un feedback optique. Nous identifions le mécanisme de bifurcation, appelé pont de bifurcation, responsable des instabilités oscillantes dans le faisceau de sortie du laser. Ces oscillations sont indésirables pour la plupart des applications impliquant de tels lasers. Nous montrons qu’elles peuvent être évitées en contrôlant la phase du feedback.
Doctorat en Sciences
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Les macrophages sont une population de cellules très hétérogènes qui adoptent des phénotypes différents en fonction des signaux qu’ils reçoivent. Ce processus est appelé polarisation. Pendant des décennies, les macrophages ont été classés en sous-populations en réponse à des stimuli spécifiques in vitro: les macrophages M1 sont pro-inflammatoires et bactéricides, tandis que les macrophages M2 sont anti-inflammatoires et impliqués dans la réparation tissulaire. Cependant, in vivo, les macrophages représentent un continuum d'états de polarisation. Les mécanismes permettant aux macrophages d’acquérir leur plasticité in vivo et les molécules impliquées dans ce processus sont encore largement méconnus.Mon projet de thèse vise à élucider les mécanismes moléculaires impliqués dans la polarisation des macrophages au cours de l’inflammation induite par une blessure et au cours des infections à Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Pour cela, j’utilise la larve de zebrafish qui est un modèle de choix pour aborder le comportement et la polarisation des macrophages in vivo grâce à sa transparence et à sa génétique. Au cours de ma thèse, nous avons suivi la polarisation des macrophages de type M1-like après une blessure du repli median (future nageoire caudale) en utilisant une microscopie à haute résolution et des lignées transgéniques rapportrices. Grâce à ce système, nous avons défini les acteurs moléculaires impliqués dans l'activation des macrophages de type M1-like immédiatement après la blessure et montré que les signaux précoces émis par la blessure, les espèces oxygénées réactives et le calcium jouent un rôle important dans ce processus.En utilisant différentes stratégies pour suivre les macrophages individuels, nous avons démontré que les macrophages sont recrutés comme une seule vague au niveau de la blessure et subissent une série de changements de morphologie et de comportement au cours du processus de réparation des tissus, suggérant que ces changements correspondent à une conversion phénotypique de type M1 vers un phénotype de type M2. Nous avons en outre constaté qu'une voie métabolique des lipides contrôle cette conversion.Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) est considérée comme l’une des principales causes d’intoxication alimentaire chez l’homme. Cette bactérie intracellulaire, réside principalement dans les macrophages et il a été proposé qu'elle exploite la polarisation M1/M2 afin de survivre et se répliquer dans l’hôte. Pour étudier la dynamique de la polarisation des macrophages dans un contexte infectieux in vivo, nous avons mis en place un modèle d'infection à S. Typhimurium chez les larves de zebrafish. Nous avons décrit l'interaction à long terme entre différents états de polarisation des macrophages avec S. Typhimurium, lors de l'infection persistante dans le cerveau de zebrafish. Enfin, nous avons développé une nouvelle lignée rapportrice transgénique marquant les macrophages non inflammatoires. Bien que d'autres validations soient nécessaires pour établir si cette lignée rapportrice est un outil prometteur pour visualiser les macrophages M2, nos données suggèrent que dans les stades tardifs de l'infection, S. Typhimurium réside préférentiellement dans les macrophages de type M2. Les découvertes obtenues dans le cadre de ma thèse devraient apporter de nouvelles cibles thérapeutiques pour réorienter les réponses macrophagiques dans des situations pathologiques
Macrophages are remarkably heterogeneous and plastic cells which adapt to their changing environment by acquiring different phenotypes in response to local cues by a process called polarization. For decades, they have been classified into subpopulations in response to specific stimuli in vitro: M1 macrophages are pro-inflammatory and bactericidal, while M2 macrophages are anti-inflammatory and involved in tissue repair. However, in vivo macrophages represent a much larger array of polarization states. How macrophages acquire their plasticity in living animals and what is the molecular basis of this process are still poorly understood.Combining powerful genetics and optical clarity, the zebrafish larva is emerging as a robust model system to study leukocyte biology. Here I used zebrafish larvae to study macrophage polarization dynamics in vivo and to dissect molecular actors that control phenotype switch during wound healing and subsequent repair. During my PhD project, we followed macrophage M1-like polarization after caudal fin fold injury in real time using high resolution microscopy and transgenic zebrafish reporter lines. Thanks to this system, we defined the molecular actors enrolled in macrophage M1-like activation after injury and showed that early wound signals, reactive oxygen species and calcium play an important in driving this activation state in a neutrophil independent manner.Using different strategies to track individual macrophages, we demonstrated that macrophages are recruited as a single wave to the wound and undergo series of morphology and behavior changes during repair, suggesting that these changes correspond to a phenotypic switch from M1-like towards M2-like phenotype. We further found that a lipid metabolic pathway controls this switch.Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is considered to be one of the leading causes of food poisoning in humans. This intracellular bacteria resides mainly in macrophages and is thought to exploit M1/M2 polarization to survive and replicate inside the host. To study the dynamics of macrophage polarization in an infection context, we set up a S. Typhimurium infection model in the zebrafish larvae. We described the long-term interaction between different macrophage polarization states with S. Typhimurium, during the persistent infection of zebrafish brain. Finally, we have developed a novel transgenic reporter line labelling non-inflammatory macrophages. Although further validations are necessary to test whether this reporter line is promising to visualize M2-like phenotypes, our data suggest that in later stages of infection S. Typhimurium resides preferentially in M2-like macrophages. The discoveries obtained within the framework of my thesis are bringing new information about macrophage polarization dynamics in living vertebrates and unravel new mechanisms orchestrating phenotype switch

Using laser pulses of duration comparable to semiconductor relaxation and dephasing times, the coherent phenomena common to two-level systems have been demonstrated in II-VI and III-V semiconductors. These light-matter interactions are characterized by electrons and holes in their initially excited states and/or a macroscopic polarization that persists after the excitation. A nonthermal carrier distribution was observed in bulk CdSe, demonstrating the extremely fast energy relaxation possible when carrier-LO-phonon scattering is included. Quantum-confined CdSe microcrystallites were then employed to limit the available decay avenues. The one and two-pair transitions were characterized, and using spectral hole-burning, energy relaxation was shown to be substantially slower than in bulk. Dipole dephasing remained very rapid. Persistent macroscopic polarization was demonstrated in semiconductors through pump and probe experiments conducted on time scales faster than the inverse linewidth of the exciton. In the first set of experiments, it was found that the exciton optical Stark shift deviates from that predicted by a steady-state theory. The shift is smaller than expected and lasts longer than the pump pulse. Both effects are explained by free evolution of the exciton's polarization. Transient exciton bleaching is observed and shown to be a result of adiabatic following. In a second study of coherent polarization, spectral oscillations at negative delay times were studied. Oscillations were measured in a wide variety of semiconductors, temporally preceding several different pump-probe phenomena. By comparison with a semiclassical theory, it was shown that spectral oscillations in the spectral region of the exciton are evidence of persistent exciton polarization. Oscillations in the band are due to four wave mixing of the pump and probe beams.

OPTICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF INGAN HETEROSTRUCTURES FOR BLUE LIGHT EMITTERS AND VERTICAL CAVITY LASERS: EFFICIENCY AND RECOMBINATION DYNAMICS By Serdal Okur, Ph.D. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014. Major Director: Ümit Özgür, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering This thesis explores radiative efficiencies and recombination dynamics in InGaN-based heterostructures and their applications as active regions in blue light emitters and particularly vertical cavities. The investigations focus on understanding the mechanism of efficiency loss at high injection as well as developing designs to mitigate it, exploring nonpolar and semipolar crystal orientations to improve radiative efficiency, integration of optimized active regions with high reflectivity dielectric mirrors in vertical cavity structures, and achieving strong exciton-photon coupling regime in these microcavities for potential polariton lasing. In regard to active regions, multiple double heterostructure (DH) designs with sufficiently thick staircase electron injection (SEI) layers, which act as electron coolers to reduce the overflow of hot electrons injected into the active region, were found to be more viable to achieve high efficiencies and to mitigate the efficiency loss at high injection. Such active regions were embedded in novel vertical cavity structure designs with full dielectric distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) through epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO), eliminating the problems associated with semiconductor bottom DBRs having narrow stopbands and the cumbersome substrate removal process. Moreover, the ELO technique allowed the injection of carriers only through the high quality regions with substantially reduced threading dislocation densities compared to regular GaN templates grown on sapphire. Reduced electron-hole wavefunction overlap in polar heterostructures was shown to hamper the efficiency of particularly thick active regions (thicker than 3 nm) possessing three-dimensional density of states needed for higher optical output. In addition, excitation density-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements showed superior optical quality of double heterostructure (3 nm InGaN wells) active regions compared to quantum wells (2 nm InGaN wells) suggesting a minimum limit for the active region thickness. Therefore, multiple relatively thin but still three dimensional InGaN active regions separated by thin and low barriers were found to be more efficient for InGaN light emitters. Investigations of electroluminescence from light emitting diodes (LEDs) incorporating multi DH InGaN active regions (e.g. quad 3 nm DH) and thick SEIs (two 20 nm-thick InGaN layers with step increase in In content) revealed higher emission intensities compared to LEDs with thinner or no SEI. This indicated that injected electrons were cooled sufficiently with thicker SEI layers and their overflow was greatly reduced resulting in efficient recombination in the active region. Among the structures considered to enhance the quantum efficiency, the multi-DH design with a sufficiently thick SEI layer constitutes a viable approach to achieve high efficiency also in blue lasers. Owing to its high exciton binding energy, GaN is one of the ideal candidates for microcavities exploiting the strong exciton-photon coupling to realize the mixed quasiparticles called polaritons and achieve ideally thresholdless polariton lasing at room temperature. Angle-resolved PL and cathodoluminescence measurements revealed large Rabi splitting values up to 75 meV indicative of the strong exciton-photon coupling regime in InGaN-based microcavities with bottom semiconductor AlN/GaN and a top dielectric SiO2/SiNxDBRs, which exhibited quality factors as high as 1300. Vertical cavity structures with all dielectric DBRs were also achieved by employing a novel ELO method that allowed integration of a high quality InGaN cavity active region with a dielectric bottom DBR without removal of the substrate while forming a current aperture through the ideally defect-free active region. The full-cavity structures formed as such were shown to exhibit clear cavity modes near 400 and 412 nm in the reflectivity spectrum and quality factors of 500. Although the polar c-plane orientation has been the main platform for the development of nitride optoelectronics, significant improvement of the electron and hole wavefunction overlap in nonpolar and semipolar InGaN heterostructures makes them highly promising candidates for light emitting devices provided that they can be produced with good crystal quality. To evaluate their true potential and shed light on the limitations put forth by the structural defects, optical processes in several nonpolar and semipolar orientations of GaN and InGaN heterostructures were investigated. Particularly, stacking faults were found to affect significantly the optical properties, substantially influencing the carrier dynamics in nonpolar (1-100), and semipolar (1-101) and (11-22)GaN layers. Carrier trapping/detrapping by stacking faults and carrier transfer between stacking faults and donors were revealed by monitoring the carrier recombination dynamics at different temperatures, while nonradiative recombination was the dominant process at room temperature. Although it is evident that nonpolar (1-100)GaN and semipolar (11-22)GaN require further improvement of material quality, steady-state and time-resolved PL measurements support that (1-101)-oriented GaN templates and InGaN active regions exhibit optical performance comparable to their highly optimized polar c-plane counterparts, and therefore, are promising for vertical cavities and light emitting device applications.

This research explores the relationship between ethnic cleavages and the class cleavage with data from the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) on liberal democracies from 1945 to 2015. According to the “freezing” thesis of Lipset & Rokkan (1967: 12), multinational countries have developed a weaker class cleavage because of anterior territorial-cultural cleavages. In the first part of the data analysis, multinational countries are compared against others on the two variables used to measure these cleavages: the salience of nationalism and economic polarization. Multinational countries show a higher salience of nationalism, as expected, and lower economic polarization. The second part of the data analysis addresses the relationship between the salience of nationalism and economic polarization in multinational countries. The regression analysis offers a dynamic account of the relationship between these variables across elections. The contextual model, also called “within-between random effects model” (REWB), explicitly models cross-country heterogeneity by separating them from within-country variance, which allows the disentanglement of long-term effects at the country level from short-term effects at the election level. The hypothesized negative relationship between the salience of nationalism and economic polarization holds at both hierarchical levels until the new democracies of the 90s are controlled for, which are confounding the effect of the country-level nationalism variable. However, the negative effect of nationalism on economic polarization remains stable at the election level. This thesis contributes to the scholarship stemming from Lipset & Rokkan’s (1967) by accounting for the short-term effect of the salience of ethnic cleavages on economic polarization at the election level.
Arts, Faculty of
Graduate

In response to chemical stimulation, many eukaryotic cells are able to sense the direction of the stimulus and initiate movement. To do so, the cell must break symmetry and develop a front and back in a process known as polarization. During polarization, members of the Rho GTPase family (Cdc42, Rac, and Rho) are recruited to the plasma membrane and localize to form a front and a back of the polarizing cell. These proteins exist in both active forms (on the inner surface of the membrane of the cell), and inactive forms (in the cytosol). In earlier work, I have shown that the property of membrane-cytosol interconversion, together with appropriate feedbacks, endows the Rho proteins with the ability to initiate cell polarity, resulting in a high Cdc42/Rac region, which will become the front, and a high Rho region, which will become the back of the cell. Here I show that this property of polarizability can be explained using a simplified model system comprising of a single active/inactive protein pair with positive feedback. In this model, a travelling wave of GTPase activation is initiated at one end of the domain, moves across the cell, and eventually stops inside the domain, resulting in a stable polar distribution. The key requirements for the mechanism to work include conservation of total amount of protein, a sufficiently large difference in diffusion rates of the two forms, and nonlinear positive feedback that allows for multiple homogeneous steady states to exist. Using singular perturbation theory, I explain the mathematical basis of wave-pinning behaviour, and discuss its biological and mathematical implications. I show that this mechanism for generating a chemical pattern is distinct from Turing pattern formation. I also analyze the transition from a spatially heterogeneous solution to a spatially homogeneous solution as the diffusion coefficient of the active form is increased, and show the existence of other unstable stationary wavefronts. Finally, I argue that this wave-pinning mechanism can account for a number of features of cell polarization such as spatial amplification, maintenance of polarity, and the sensitivity to new stimuli that is typical of polarization of eukaryotic cells.

Microcavity polaritons are mixed light-matter quasiparticles arising from the strong coupling between quantum well excitons and photons confined in a Fabry-Perot microcavity. Their bosonic nature along with the strong interparticle interactions makes polaritons an excellent solid-state platform to study the nonlinear properties of bosonic condensates, with the advantage of being addressable using standard optical techniques. An important degree of freedom in the study of polaritons is the possibility to introduce a lateral confining potential. The growth and etching techniques developed at LPN allow obtaining low dimensional structures of different geometries, preserving high optical properties, opening the way to the study of polariton nonlinearities in at-will potential landscapes. During my PhD, my research has focused mostly on the experimental study of 0D structures, consisting of single micropillars and polaritonic molecules made of coupled micropillars. I studied the coherence properties of polariton condensates in single micropillars, by measuring the g2 function of the emission with a streak camera technique providing a time resolution of ~ 4 ps. I studied the Josephson physics in diatomic molecules made of two coupled micropillars, with particular attention to the nonlinear regimes. In particular the macroscopic self-trapping regime has been observed. Finally I studied a more complex molecule made of six coupled micropillars in a hexagonal shape, where an effective spin-orbit coupling for polaritons has been realized. These results highlight microcavity polaritons in micropillars as a platform where nonlinear effects can be studied, in combination with nontrivial topologies
Les polaritons de microcavité sont des particules mixtes lumière-matière issues du couplage fort entre les excitons dans un puits quantique et les photons confinés dans une microcavité Fabry-Pérot. Leur nature bosonique et les fortes nonlinéarités font des polaritons une excellente plateforme où l’on peut étudier les propriétés nonlinéaires des condensats des bosons, avec l’avantage de pouvoir les manipuler avec des techniques optiques. Un degré de liberté important est la possibilité d’introduire un potentiel latéral de confinement. Les techniques de croissance et de gravure développées au LPN permettent d’obtenir des géométries différentes qui préservent de hautes propriétés optiques. Cela ouvre la voie à l’étude des nonlinéarités dans les polaritons dans des potentiels sur mesure. Pendant mon doctorat, ma recherche a été focalisée sur l’étude expérimentale des structures 0D, en particulier des micropiliers simples et des molécules formées de piliers couplés. J’ai étudié les propriétés de cohérence des condensats de polaritons dans des piliers simples, en mesurant la fonction g2 de l’émission avec une streak camera possedant un temps de résolution de 4 ps. J’ai étudié la physique de Josephson dans des molécules polaritoniques faites de deux piliers couplés, avec une attention particulière au régime nonlinéaire. En particulier le régime de self-trapping a été observé. J’ai étudié une molécule plus complexe composée de six piliers couplés dans une structure hexagonale, où un couplage spin-orbite effectif a été réalisé. Ces résultats etablissent les polaritons de microcavité comme une plateforme où les effets nonlinéaires peuvent être étudiés en combinaison avec des topologies non triviales

This thesis presents work done in three different topics in biology with a combination of experiments, mathematical modeling and quantitative data analysis. All cellular materials are partitioned between daughters at cell division, but by different mechanisms and with different accuracy. Many macromolecules partition in proportion to cytoplasmic volume with significant errors at low numbers, while chromosomes accurately push half the copies to each cell regardless of volume. Little is known about organelles, but in Schizosaccharomyces pombe the mitochondria are pushed to the cell poles by the spindle, along with the chromosomes. Here we find that mitochondria spatially re-equilibrate just before division, and that the mitochondrial volume and DNA-containing nucleoids instead segregate in proportion to the cytoplasm inherited by each daughter. However, in contrast to other macromolecules, nucleoid partitioning errors are still strongly suppressed. This is ensured by control at two levels: mitochondrial volume is actively distributed throughout a cell in a process involving the microtubule associated protein Mmb1p, and nucleoids are spaced out in semi-regular arrays within mitochondria. The data also suggest that nucleoid replication control is passive and Poisson, and that low concentration noise is achieved by accurate segregation rather than corrective feedback control. Patterning in organisms is both beautiful and functional, but we have limited understanding of the general principles that cause patterns to emerge from isotropic initial conditions. Alan Turing proposed a minimal set of conditions that would allow reaction-diffusion systems to spontaneously form stable patterns. Since then many biological systems have been hypothesized to be of the Turing type, but with limited evidence that they actually rely on this mechanism. One of the conditions of Turing's theory is that reactions must have non-linear sensitivities (cooperativity) in their positive feedback cycles. We use a minimal model of yeast bud site selection to show that the amount of cooperativity achievable is naturally limited by the kinetic parameters achievable by proteins and the type of reaction mechanisms commonly used to achieve cooperativity. Further, higher levels of cooperativity necessarily cause pattern formation to slow down, likely causing a fitness defect for the organism. Then, because cooperativity is also used in many other biology systems, we show examples in TF-promoter binding and cooperative ligand binding where the trade-off between cooperativity speed of response is also present. These considerations bring into question how biological systems respond to these trade-offs. We then explore a conceptual model for yeast budding where an additional actin-based positive feedback loop uses a time-delay, not cooperativity, to ensure that yeast picks a single bud site. RNA polymerase II (RNAP) pauses and backtracks during transcription elongation to regulate gene expression, control transcriptional efficiency and ensure transcriptional accuracy. After a pause, RNAP often backtracks and, in the presence of TFIIS, cleaves off the 3’ end of nascent RNA, allowing productive transcription to restart. However, the precise determinants of RNAP pausing, backtracking, and restarting remain unclear. Native elongating transcript sequencing (NET-seq) visualizes RNA polymerase pausing and backtracking with nucleotide resolution. Applying NET-seq to wild-type S. cerevisiae gives locations where cleavage occurs after backtracking. In contrast, NET-seq data from a strain where TFIIS is deleted reveal the primary points of pausing. Using these data, we show that RNAP pausing is largely controlled by the relative strength of the RNA:DNA and DNA:DNA hybrids in and downstream of the transcription bubble. In addition, backtracking is likely determined by the stacking interactions between the 3’-end of nascent RNA and Tyr769 of the Rpb2 subunit of RNAP. Though other factors beyond structural energetics of the transcription elongation complex certainly play a role in RNAP backtracking, this work suggests that the ubiquity of RNAP backtracking is largely controlled by sequence elements.
Systems Biology

In this thesis, resonance enhanced multiphoton ionisation (REMPI) in combination with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) has been used to detect nascent photofragments resulting from the UV dissociation of a variety of small molecules. The translational anisotropy and angular momentum polarisation of these photofragments has been measured and used to elucidate the underlying photodissociation dynamics. Firstly, the photodissociation of NO₂ at 320nm has been investigated and the vector correlations of the nascent NO photofragments have been measured in terms of a set of semi-classical bipolar moments. The measured angular momentum alignment is found to be consistent with an impulsive model for the dissociation, with μ and ν in the same molecular plane and both preferentially perpendicular to J, whilst angular momentum orientation measurements provide evidence for an additional torque due to the O-N-O bond opening during dissociation. These measurements were taken using a rotationally cooled, skimmed molecular beam and significant deviations were found between the bipolar moments measured using this source and previous measurements using a rotationally hotter source. The effect of parent molecular rotations on the measured bipolar moments has been quantified and successfully used to explain these deviations. The photodissociation of Cl₂ has been studied in the wavelength region (320-350)nm. UV absorption in this wavelength region may result in two dissociation channels, (Cl+Cl) and (Cl+Cl*), and the angular momentum polarisation of both the Cl(²P_3/2) and Cl*(²P_1/2) photofragments has been measured. This angular momentum polarisation has been reported in terms of a polarisation parameter formalism which, together with the measured translational anisotropies, has been used to determine the different potential energy surfaces contributing to the dissociation process. Translational anisotropy measurements of the Cl(²P_3/2) fragments have shown that, for the ground-state channel, dissociation results from a pure perpendicular transition to the C state, whilst alignment measurements show that non-adiabatic transitions to the A state are significant at large internuclear separations. The measured alignment parameters are found to be relatively constant for all dissociation wavelengths and are consistent with theoretical predictions. Translational anisotropy measurements of the Cl(2P_1/2) photofragments show that, for the excited-state channel, dissociation occurs following a mixed parallel and perpendicular excitation to the B and C states respectively and the interference between these two dissociation pathways has been shown to result in angular momentum orientation. The predissociation dynamics of the C ³Π_g (ν=0) and (ν=1) Rydberg states of O₂ has been extensively studied. The translational anisotropy and angular momentum alignment of the O(³P) and O(¹D) photofragments resulting from this predissociation has been measured in terms of a polarisation parameter formalism, which has been extended for a two-photon dissociation process. Measurements have been taken at various fixed wavelengths within the two bands in order to investigate the differences in the predissociation dynamics of intermediate levels with different values of |Ω|(=0,1,2 in this case). The translational anisotropy is found to be dependent on the dissociation wavelength with the variations found to be consistent with rotational depolarisation due to the long lifetime of the excited C state. All photofragments have been found to be aligned, with the relationship between the measured O(³P) and O(¹D) alignment being found to be consistent with a diabatic model of the dissociation. In addition, all photofragments are found to display coherent orientation resulting from interference between two possible two-photon absorption pathways. The measured orientation is affected by rotational depolarisation due to the long lifetime of the excited C state; once this effect is accounted for the orientation is found to be nearly constant over all dissociation wavelengths. The origin of the coherent orientation is attributed to two-photon absorption to different spin-orbit components of the C state.

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit dem Einfluss der elektrischen Polarisation auf Eigenschaften freier Träger in ZnO basierten Halbleiterheterostrukturen. Dabei werden insbesondere Transporteigenschaften freier Träger sowie deren Rekombinationsdynamik untersucht. Die Arbeit behandelt vier inhaltliche Schwerpunkte. Der erste Schwerpunkt liegt auf den physikalischen Eigenschaften der verwendeten Materialen, hier wird der Zusammenhang der Bandlücke und der Gitterkonstanten von MgZnO Dünnfilmen und deren Magnesiumgehalt beschrieben. Weiterhin wird die Morphologie solcher Filme diskutiert. Auf unterschiedliche Substrate und Abscheidebedingungen wird dabei detailliert eingegangen. Der zweite Schwerpunkt behandelt die Eigenschaften undotierter und phosphordotierter ZnO und MgZnO Dünnfilme. Die strukturellen, Transport- und Lumineszenzeigenschaften werden hier verglichen und Rückschlüsse auf die Züchtungsbedingungen gezogen. Im dritten Schwerpunkt werden Quanteneffekte an ZnO/MgZnO Grenzflaechen behandelt. Hierbei wird insbesondere auf den Einfluss der elektrischen Polarisation eingegangen. Die Präsenz eines zweidimensionalen Elektronengases wird nachgewiesen, und die notwendigen Bedingungen zur Entstehung des sogenannten qunatum confined Stark-effects werden dargelegt. Insbesondere wird hier auf züchtungsrelevante Parameter eingegangen. Den vierten Schwerpunkt stellen Kopplungsphänomene in ZnO/BaTiO3 Heterostrukturen dar. Dabei werden zuerst die experimentell beobachten Eigenschaften verschiedener Heterostrukturen die auf unterschiedlichen Substraten gezüchtet wurden aufgezeigt. Hier stehen strukturelle und Transporteigenschaften im Vordergrund. Ein Modell zur Beschreibung der Ausbildung von Raumladungszonen in derartigen Heterostrukturen wird eingeführt und zur Beschreibung der experimentellen Ergebnisse angewandt. Die Nutzbarkeit der ferroelektrischen Eigenschaften des Materials BaTiO3 in Kombination mit halbleitendem ZnO wurden untersucht. Hierzu wurden ferroelektrische Feldeffekttransistoren unter Verwendung beider Materialien hergestellt. Die prinzipielle Eignung der Bauelemente als nichtflüchtige Speicherelemente wurde nachgewiesen.

Konsens ist entscheidend für viele Aspekte unseres täglichen Lebens. Von der Sprache über soziale Normen bis hin zu den Regeln eines einfachen Kartenspiels ist breite Übereinstimmung erforderlich, um den jeweiligen Zweck zu erfüllen. Auch die Meinungen zu den zentralen Themen unserer Zeit sollten so weit übereinstimmen, dass wichtige Herausforderungen gemeinsam in Angriff genommen werden können. Dies ist jedoch häufig nicht der Fall. Sowohl politische Meinungen als auch Einstellungen zu ethischen Fragen sind oft tief gespalten. Die Ursprünge einer solchen Meinungspolarisierung haben die Soziologie lange Zeit vor ein Rätsel gestellt, da soziale Einflüsse uns oft näher zusammenzubringen scheinen. Was müssen wir also annehmen, um Meinungsspaltungen zu erklären? Wann wird ein Konsens gebildet? Und welche Rolle könnte die gestiegene Kommunikation zwischen Menschen bei diesen Prozessen spielen? In dieser Arbeit werden wir uns solchen Fragen mit Hilfe mathematischer Modellierung und der Analyse sozialer Daten nähern. Im Speziellen soll dazu beigetragen werden, die Lücke zwischen mikroskopischen Annahmen über den sozialen Einfluss und der Bildung von makroskopischen Meinungszuständen in sozialen Netzwerken zu schließen.
Consensus is key for many aspects of our daily lives. Concepts ranging from language, to social norms, to the rules of a simple card game require population-scale agreement to fulfil their function. People's opinions on major issues of our time should also be reasonably consistent such that important challenges can be tackled collectively. However, this is often not the case. Political opinions as well as the attitudes towards ethical issues are often deeply divided. The origins of such opinion polarization have puzzled sociology for a long time, as social influence often seems to bring us closer together. Hence, what do we have to assume in order to explain opinion cleavages? When will consensus be formed? And what might be the role of increased communication among people in these processes? In this thesis, we tackle such questions by means of mathematical modeling and the analysis of social data. More specifically, we aim to contribute to bridging the gap between microscopic assumptions about social influence and the formation of macroscopic opinion states in social networks.

This dissertation aims to investigate the bases of partisan differentiation and degree of polarization since Taiwan's 2000 presidential election. By employing American concepts and theories of partisan polarization, I analyze Taiwan's party politics at both the elite and mass levels. At the elite level, I examine whether inter‐party antagonism has become more intense in Taiwan's legislature and what types of issues contribute most to party conflict since 2000. At the mass level, I examine public perceptions of the parties, analyze whether any political issues divide the Taiwanese public along partisan lines, and explore the social and demographic bases of partisan divisions. The findings suggest that political elites became polarized along partisan lines after 2000, as observed in roll‐call voting behavior in the Legislative Yuan. This resulted from the formation of a divided government and the confrontation of two party coalitions after the 2000 presidential election. Furthermore, this polarization is mainly due to the opposite positions of the two party coalitions on the issue of the relationship with China. The pan‐blue party coalition favors reunification and closer interaction with China, whereas its counterpart, the pan‐green party coalition, favors Taiwanese independence and limited interaction with China. The issues of social reform vs. stability, social welfare vs. lower taxes, and environmental protection vs. economic development are less polarizing and less consistently divisive than the issue of Taiwan's relations with China. Partisan polarization is less evident among ordinary citizens than among political elites. The only issue dividing Taiwanese significantly is the China relationship issue (independence or unification with China). In addition, demographic factors may lead to partisan division among citizens. Nevertheless, this polarization is more moderate than that of political elites because the number of partisan independents is high and has not decreased significantly. In short, partisan polarization in Taiwan is not as intense as some political scientists claim. Taiwan's partisan polarization at the mass level is closer to the concept of "sorting", referring to the process of people gradually affiliating with the party that best reflects their policy preferences, even if those preferences are more moderate than extreme.

The significant advances in fiber-optic technology have broadened the optical network\'s reach into end-user business premises and even homes, allowing new services and technologies to be delivered to the customers. The next wave of innovation will certainly generate numerous opportunities provided by the widespread popularity of emerging solutions and applications such as tactile Internet, telemedicine and real time 3-D content generation, making them part of everyday life. Nevertheless, to support such an unprecedented and insatiable demand of data traffic, higher capacity and security, flexible bandwidth allocation and cost-efficiency have become crucial requirements for technologies candidate for future optical access networks. To this aim, optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) technology is considered as a prospective candidate, particularly due to features like asynchronous transmissions, flexible as well as conscious bandwidth resource distribution and support to differentiated services at the physical layer, to name but a few. In this context, this thesis proposes new mathematical formalisms for bit error rate, packet throughput and packet delay to assess the performance of flexible OCDMA networks capable of providing multiservice multirate transmissions according to users\' requirements. The proposed analytical formalisms do not require the knowledge a priori of the users\' code sequences, which means that the network performance can be addressed in a simple and straightforward manner using the code parameters only. In addition, the developed analytical formalisms account for a general number of distinct users\' classes as well as general probability of interference among users. Hence, these formalisms can be successfully applied for performance evaluation of flexible OCDMA networks not only under any number of users\' classes in a network, but also for most spreading codes with good correlation properties. The packet throughput expression is derived assuming Poisson, binomial and Markov chain approaches for the composite packet arrivals with the latter defined as benchmark. Then, it is shown via numerical simulation the Poisson-based expression is not appropriate for a reliable throughput estimate when compared to the benchmark (Markov) results. The binomial-based throughput equation, by its turn, provides results as accurate as the benchmark. In addition, the binomial-based throughput is numerically more convenient and computationally more efficient than the Markov chain approach, whereas the Markov-based one is computationally expensive, particularly if the number of users is large. The bit error rate (BER) expressions are derived considering gaussian and binomial distributions for the multiple-access interference and it is shown via numerical simulations that accurate performance of flexible OCDMA networks is only obtained with the binomial-based BER expression. This thesis also proposes and investigates a network architecture for Internet protocol traffic over flexible OCDMA with support to multiservice multirate transmissions, which is independent of the employed spreading code and does not require any new optical processing technology. In addition, the network performance assumes users transmitting asynchronously using receptors based on intensity-modulation direct-detection schemes. Numerical simulations shown that the proposed network performs well when its users are defined with high-weight code or when the channel utilization is low. The BER and packet throughput performance of an OCDMA network that provides multirate transmissions via multicode technique with two codes assigned to each single user is also addressed. Numerical results show that this technique outperforms classical techniques based on multilength code. Finally, this thesis addresses a new breakthrough technology that might lead to higher levels of security at the physical layer of optical networks. This technology consists in the generation of deterministic chaos from a commercial free-running vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The chaotic dynamics is generated by means of mechanical strains loaded onto an off-the-shelf quantum-well VCSEL using a simple and easily replicable holder. Deterministic chaos is then achieved, for the first time, without any additional complexity of optical feedback, parameter modulation or optical injection. The simplicity of the proposed system, which is based entirely on low-cost and easily available components, opens the way to the widespread use of commercial and free-running VCSEL devices for chaos-based applications. This off-the-shelf and cost-effective optical chaos generator has the potential for not only paving the way towards new security platforms in optical networks like, for example, successfully hiding the user information in an unpredictable, random-like signal against eventual eavesdroppers, but also for influencing emerging chaos applications initially limited or infeasible due to the lack of low-cost solutions. Furthermore, it leads the way to future realization of emerging applications with high-integrability and -scalability such as two-dimensional arrays of chaotic devices comprising hundreds of individual sources to increase requirements for random bit generation, cryptography or large-scale quantum networks.
Os avanços relacionados a tecnologia fotônica ampliaram o alcance das redes de comunicação óptica tanto em instalações de estabelecimentos comerciais quanto em residências, permitindo que novos serviços e tecnologias fossem entregues aos clientes. A próxima onda de inovação certamente gerará inúmeras oportunidades proporcionadas pela popularidade de soluções emergentes e aplicações como a Internet tátil, a telemedicina e a geração de conteúdo 3-D em tempo real, tornando-os parte da vida cotidiana. No entanto, para suportar a crescente demanda de tráfego atual, uma maior capacidade e segurança, alocação flexível de largura de banda e custo-eficiência tornaram-se requisitos cruciais para as tecnologias candidatas a futuras redes de acesso óptico. Para este fim, a tecnologia de acesso múltiplo por divisão de código óptico (OCDMA) é considerada um candidato em potencial, particularmente devido a características como transmissões assíncronas, distribuição flexível de banda larga e suporte a serviços diferenciados na camada física, para citar apenas alguns. Neste contexto, esta tese propõe novos formalismos matemáticos para a taxa de erro de bits, taxa de transferência de pacotes e atraso de pacotes para avaliar o desempenho de redes OCDMA flexíveis capazes de fornecer transmissões em múltiplas qualidades de serviço (QoS) de acordo com as necessidades dos usuários. Os formalismos analíticos propostos não requerem o conhecimento a priori das sequências de código dos usuários, o que significa que o desempenho da rede pode ser abordado de forma simples e direta usando apenas os parâmetros de código. Além disso, os formalismos analíticos desenvolvidos representam um número geral de classes de usuários distintos, bem como a probabilidade geral de interferência entre os usuários. Portanto, esses formalismos podem ser aplicados com sucesso na avaliação de desempenho de redes OCDMA flexíveis não apenas em qualquer número de classes de usuários em uma rede, mas também para a maioria dos códigos de espalhamento com boas propriedades de correlação. A expressão de taxa de transferência de pacotes é derivada assumindo aproximações de Poisson, binomial e de cadeia de Markov para as chegadas de pacotes compostos, com a última definida como benchmark. Em seguida, é mostrado via simulação numérica que a expressão baseada em Poisson não é apropriada para uma estimativa confiável de taxa de transferência quando comparada aos resultados de benchmark (Markov). A equação de taxa de transferência binomial, por sua vez, fornece resultados tão precisos quanto o benchmark. Além disso, a taxa de transferência binomial é numericamente mais conveniente e computacionalmente eficiente quando comparada com abordagem de Markov, enquanto esta última é computacionalmente dispendiosa, particularmente se o número de usuários é grande. As expressões de taxa de erro de bit (BER) são derivadas considerando distribuições gaussianas e binomiais para a interferência de acesso múltiplo e é mostrado por meio de simulações numéricas que o desempenho exato de redes OCDMA flexíveis é obtido somente com a expressão binomial de BER. Esta tese também propõe e investiga uma arquitetura de rede para o tráfego de protocolo de Internet sobre OCDMA flexível com suporte a transmissões de QoS e de múltiplas taxas, que é independente do código de espalhamento empregado e não requer qualquer nova tecnologia de processamento óptico. Além disso, o desempenho da rede assume que os usuários transmitem de forma assíncrona usando receptores baseados em esquemas de detecção direta de modulação de intensidade. As simulações numéricas mostraram que a rede proposta possui melhor desempenho quando seus usuários são definidos com peso de código alto ou quando a utilização do canal é baixa. O desempenho da BER e da taxa de transferência de pacotes de uma rede OCDMA que fornece transmissões de múltiplas taxas por meio de uma técnica multi-código com dois códigos atribuídos a cada usuário é também abordado. Os resultados numéricos mostram que esta técnica supera as técnicas clássicas baseadas no código de comprimento múltiplo. Finalmente, esta tese aborda uma nova tecnologia que pode levar a níveis mais elevados de segurança na camada física de redes ópticas. Esta tecnologia consiste na geração de caos determinístico a partir de um laser de emissão superficial com cavidade vertical (VCSEL). A dinâmica caótica é gerada através da aplicação de forças mecânicas em um VCSEL comercial usando um suporte simples e facilmente replicável. O caos determinístico é então alcançado, pela primeira vez, sem qualquer complexidade adicional de realimentação óptica, modulação de parâmetros ou injeção óptica. A simplicidade do sistema proposto, o qual se baseia inteiramente em componentes de baixo custo e que são facilmente encontrados, abre o caminho para o uso de dispositivos VCSEL comerciais para aplicações baseadas em caos. Este gerador de caos óptico tem o potencial não só de pavimentar o caminho para novas plataformas de segurança em redes ópticas, como, por exemplo, ocultar com êxito as informações do usuário em um sinal imprevisível e aleatório contra eventuais invasores, como também tem o potencial de influenciar aplicações de caos emergentes inicialmente limitadas ou inviáveis devido à falta de soluções de baixo custo. Além disso, ele conduz o caminho para a realização futura de aplicações emergentes com alta integridade e escalabilidade, tais como matrizes bidimensionais de dispositivos caóticos que compreendem centenas de fontes individuais para aumentar as necessidades de geração de bit aleatória, criptografia ou redes quânticas de grande escala.

Investigations of polarization switching over broad time and electric field domains, in various modified Pb-based perovskite ferroelectrics, were systematically performed by ferroelectric switching current transient and bipolar drive P-E responses. Studies were performed from E«Ec to E»Ec, where Ec is the coercive field These investigations have shown the presence of broad relaxation time distributions for the switching process, which can extend over several decades in order of magnitude in time, and where the distribution is strongly dependent on the applied electric field. By performing the study of domain dynamics and polarization switching over extremely broad time domains (10⁻⁸ t < 10² sec), more complete information has been obtained that allows for development of a better mechanistic understanding. Prior polarization kinetics studies have focused on relatively narrow time ranges, and were fit to the Avarami equation, which contains a single relaxation time. However, our broad band width polarization dynamics and frequency relaxation studies have been fit to multiple stretched exponential functions extending over decades of order of magnitude in the time domain. Stretched exponential functions for domain nuclei formation, and for domain variant growth have been found. For example, [001]c, [110]c, and [111]c oriented PZN-4.5%PT crystals, nucleation was found to be a volume process (n=3) rather than just a domain wall restricted process. Consequently, nucleation is heterogeneous. And, growth of a domain variant with reversed polarization was found to be a boundary process (n=2), involving diffuse or rough domain walls. We have extended these studies to various types of ferroelectrics including hard, soft and relaxor types.
Master of Science

Les VCSELs sont aujourd'hui des composants incontournables pour les applications datacom. Les travaux présentés ont comme objectif principal l'étude des déformations mécaniques induites par les étapes initiant le procédé de fabrication de VCSELs GaAs à confinement par diaphragme d'oxyde émettant à 850 nm. L'utilisation de techniques non-destructives telles que la mesure du degré de polarisation de la photo-luminescence (DOP) et la micro-photoluminescence nous a permis d'obtenir une vision précise, à la fois spatiale et quantitative de ces déformations. Les effets induits dans les structures VCSELs après le dépôt de diélectrique comme couche de masquage pour la gravure, la gravure plasma de la mesa P, mais aussi l'oxydation thermique par voie humide des couches de confinement ont ainsi été caractérisés. Des valeurs de contraintes de plusieurs dizaines de MPa ont été mesurées au sein d'une structure VCSEL qui a subi les étapes de procédé jusqu'à l'oxydation. Nous avons pu démontrer expérimentalement qu'il est possible de réduire jusqu'à 25 % les contraintes mécaniques engendrées par le procédé d'oxydation en effectuant un recuit post-oxydation. Une étude par STEM-EELS de la morphologie et de la composition atomique des oxydes à une échelle locale nous a permis d'affiner l'interprétation physique de l'effet de ce recuit. En se basant sur les résultats expérimentaux de DOP, nous avons réalisé un travail de modélisation analytique et numérique afin de prédire les déformations mécaniques induites par les étapes de procédés citées précédemment. Enfin, nous avons exposé les premiers résultats de caractérisations électriques et optiques de tels VCSELs montrant que les composants étudiés entrent dans les spécifications internes avec un procédé de fabrication globalement uniforme
Nowadays, VCSELs are key components for datacom applications. The work presented is focused on the study of the mechanical deformations induced by the steps initiating the manufacturing process of GaAs based VCSELs operating at 850 nm and including aluminum-oxide as confinement layers. The use of non-destructive techniques such as the measurement of the degree of polarization of photoluminescence (DOP) and micro-photoluminescence allowed us to obtain a precise vision both spatially and quantitatively of these mechanical deformations. The effects induced in VCSEL structures after dielectric deposition used as a hard mask for etching, plasma etching of the P-mesa and wet thermal oxidation of the confinement layers have thus been characterized. Stress values of several tens of MPa were measured in a VCSEL structure conducted through the various process steps up to oxidation. We have experimentally demonstrated that it is possible to reduce the mechanical stress generated by the oxidation process by up to 25% by performing a post-oxidation annealing. A study by STEM-EELS of the oxide morphology and its atomic composition at a local scale has helped us to refine the physical interpretation of the effect related to this annealing. Based on the experimental DOP results, analytical and numerical modeling approaches were also carried out to predict the mechanical deformations induced by the different process steps mentioned above. Finally, we presented the first electrical and optical characterizations performed on such VCSELs showing that the studied devices are in agreement with the internal specifications and that the fabrication process can be considered as uniform

Abstract The work deals with the experimental study of ferroelectric (FE) performance scaling for nanometer-sized devices. In the emerging and advanced devices, it is desirable to couple FE performance with other functions. This requires integration of nanoscale FEs with other materials, which is especially promising in epitaxial heterostructures. Such heterostructures inevitably possess a large lattice mismatch, the effect of which on FE properties is unknown and is in the focus of the present work. In the study, heteroepitaxial thin and ultrathin films and superlattices of ABO3-type perovskite structure FEs were used, with A = Pb, Ba, Sr, K, and N, and B = Ti, Zr, Nb, and Ta. FE domains and local polarization switching were explored on the nanometer scale using piezoresponse force microscopy. The experiment was modified that allowed achieving images with high contrast and lateral resolution, and also allowed analysis of nanodomains in lateral capacitor configuration. Local properties were related to a macroscopic response. For this, the method of simultaneous on-wafer low-frequency impedance measurements was optimized allowing studies of thin and ultrathin (to 5 nm) films in a broad range of conditions and regimes. Experimental studies have reveled phenomena which cannot be explained in the frame of the existing theories. The observed new effects are important for applications such as multistate memory devices, storage capacitors, and FE tunnel junction devices.

La dynamique moléculaire classique est un outil précieux pour explorer le monde de l’infiniment petit, notamment lorsque l’on parle de systèmes biologiques (protéines). Ces simulations sont basées sur des modèles plus ou moins avancés, où la prise en compte des électrons n’est pas évidente. La polarisabilité permet la prise en compte de la mobilité des nuages électronique tout en conservant un cadre classique. Elle peut-être décrite par des dipôles induits, dont le calcul demande la résolution d’un schéma auto-cohérent (SCF), coûteux en terme de temps de calcul et source d’instabilité. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons un nouvel algorithme permettant un traitement plus rapide et plus stable des dipôles induits, basé sur la troncature du Gradient Conjugué. La précision, la versatilité, l’efficacité du Gradient Conjugué Tronqué (TCG) sont évalués sur plusieurs système. Son application à des calculs plus sensibles d’énergie libre est également testée. Le TCG est enfin utilisé afin de mettre au point de nouveaux intégrateurs de dynamique moléculaire permettant d’importantes accélérations. On démontre finalement que TCG est un outil polyvalent, adaptable, efficace, qui permet une accélération considérable des dynamiques polarisables longues
Classical molecular dynamics is a precious tools to explore the infinitely small world, e.g. when considering biological systems (such as proteins). These simulations are based on physical models of various precision and complexity, where taking electrons into account is not easy. Polarizability allows one to take into account the mobility of the electronic density, while keeping the classical description framework. It can be described using induced dipoles, whose computation is done through a Self-Consistent procedure, which is costly in terms of computational time and can also cause instability. In this thesis, we introduce a new algorithm allowing a faster and more stable treatment of the induced dipoles, based on the truncation of the Conjugate Gradient. Accuracy, versatility, efficiency of the so-called Truncated Conjugate Gradient (TCG) are evaluated on various systems. Its applicability to free energy calculations is also tested. TCG is finally used in order to derive new molecular dynamics integrators allowing for considerable accelerations. To sum this up, TCG proves to be a polyvalent, adaptable, efficient tool, which allows for substantial acceleration of long polarizable dynamics

This research presents the first use of side-polished Panda fiber in the fabrication of slab-coupled optical sensors (SCOS). It is determined that the Panda SCOS provides a sensor that is comparable to the D-fiber SCOS in cases of electric field sensing. It exhibits greater power transfer and higher bandwidth than a typical D-SCOS. The Panda SCOS is also less costly and easier to splice than the D-fiber alternative. This comes at a cost of slightly decreased sensitivity and a more fragile fabrication process. This research also demonstrates the use of the Panda-SCOS as means of voltage characterization across both the spark gap of an ignition coil circuit along with the spark gap of an automobile. This paper demonstrates the use of a Panda SCOS to measure the voltages and time delays across the spark gaps at different stages of a Marx generator setup .

Abstract This thesis reports simulations of direct observables in electron and nuclear spin relaxation experiments in an example paramagnetic system, as well as polarization transfer occurring in a spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP) experiment. Studies of paramagnetic relaxation are important, e.g., in the development of agents used for enhanced contrast in magnetic resonance imaging. SEOP is used to produce hyperpolarized noble gases, which are then used to, e.g., enhance sensitivity in structural studies of matter with nuclear magnetic resonance. Presently the theory, available software and hardware for such computational modeling have reached a state in which quantitative reproduction of the experimentally observed magnetization decay is possible from first principles. The present multiscale computations are carried out from first principles combining molecular dynamics simulations of atomistic motion and quantum-chemical electronic structure calculations of the spin interaction parameters that enter the effective spin Hamiltonian. A time series of the spin Hamiltonian is then explicitly used to propagate spin dynamics in the system, and dynamical time constants of the magnetization are obtained through ensemble averaging. The complete decay of electron spin magnetization could be followed directly within the duration of the simulation, whereas the nuclear spin relaxation rates were extracted using Kubo’s theory regarding generalized cumulant expansion and stochastic processes. The extracted electron and nuclear spin relaxation rates for the chosen prototypic system, the aqueous solution of Ni²⁺, are in quantitative and semi-quantitative agreement, respectively, with the available experimental results. The simulations of polarization transfer corroborate the empirical observations on the importance of van der Waals complexes and binary collisions in the spin-exchange process. Long van der Waals complexes represent the overwhelmingly most significant kind of individual events, but the short binary collisions can also give a relatively important contribution due to their vast abundance. This thesis represents a first study in which first principles-calculated trajectories of individual events could be followed. The simulations reported in this thesis were run without any empirical parametrization and thus represent a significant step in first-principles computational modeling of magnetization dynamics.

The Sub-Auroral Polarization Stream (SAPS) is a narrow, intense and persistent westward (sunward) ionospheric convection flow channel observed equatorward of the auroral electron precipitation boundary, predominantly on the nightside. Previous studies have identified disturbed-time SAPS to be a geomagnetic activity dependent phenomenon, which exhibits average pre-midnight and post-midnight velocities of 1000 m/s and 400 m/s respectively. Numerous studies have reported even narrower and more intense westward plasma flows called SAIDs to be embedded within SAPS channels, especially during substorm recovery phases. Quiet-time SAPS studies, although relatively few, have shown these SAPS to be associated with much weaker velocities and to be influenced by substorm intensifications. However, these studies have been limited in their ability to make simultaneous measurements of SAPS flow velocities over many hours of MLT. The recent expansion of SuperDARN radars to middle latitudes facilitates unprecedented large-scale observations of SAPS over 10 hours of MLT with high temporal and spatial resolution. In this thesis, we first examine the spatial and temporal dynamics of one quiet-time SAPS event, using the mid-latitude SuperDARN radars. The SAPS was identified as elevated flows lying equatorward of the auroral electron precipitation boundary specified by the NOAA POES satellites. We demonstrate the L-shell fitting technique to analyze the dynamics in the strength and direction of the two-dimensional SAPS flow velocities at three separate magnetic longitudes. The quiet-time SAPS event thus examined lasted for over 4 hours in UT and extended over 10 hours of MLT, as is commonly observed for disturbed-time SAPS. However, the decrease in SAPS peak latitudes and peak velocities with MLT and MLon respectively, observed for disturbed-time SAPS, was not observed for this event. We also find the dynamics of the enhancements in the quiet-time SAPS peak velocities, to correlate well with that of substorm intensifications identified using the CARISMA magnetometers. We then identify numerous such conjunctions between quiet-time SAPS and substorms to infer that quiettime SAPS were almost always associated with substorms and their durations were well bounded by that of the substorms for most cases. Next, we extend this analysis over to a statistical study of quiet-time and disturbed-time SAPS events identified over two years. From this study, we find quiet-time SAPS to occur between the relatively narrow nightside MLT range of [18, 4] whereas disturbed-time SAPS was found to occur between the broader nightside MLT range of [15, 5]. We also find the occurrence percentage of quiet-time SAPS to be at its highest between the narrow latitude range of 60-66⁰, while disturbed-time SAPS was observed to occur within a much broader latitude range of 55-66⁰. Finally, the calibration and validation of a control card used in the SuperDARN radar transmitters, is discussed.
Master of Science